Captain Conley assumed duties as the Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Reserve Unit, U.S. Southern Command in July 2012. He will now be assigned to Coast Guard Pacific Area Command, as the Reserve Forces Chief of Staff.

Captain Linsky reported to Coast Guard Reserve Unit Joint Staff Suffolk, Virginia in September 2012, serving as the Training Department Head. He also serves as the Joint Staff Reserve Unit’s Defense Support to Civil Authorities Team Chief leading a joint service team responsible for training and providing deployable interagency controllers and liaison officers in support of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff directed exercises for Combatant and Joint Task Force Commanders. He will now be Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Reserve Unit, U.S. Southern Command.

Coast Guard Reserve Unit SOUTHCOM provides a ready-reserve force of deployable U.S. Coast Guard expertise, prepared and equipped to conduct intelligence, operations, planning, and other specialized duties in garrison and throughout the Americas in support of U.S. diplomatic, defense, and homeland security goals.

U.S. Southern Command is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands in the Department of Defense. SOUTHCOM is responsible for providing contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

The change of command ceremony is a time-honored tradition which formally restates the continuity of command will be maintained and is a formal ritual conducted before the assembled company of command. It conveys to the officers, enlisted members, civilian employees and auxiliary members of the Coast Guard that although the authority of command is relinquished by a leader and is assumed by another, it is still maintained without interruption.